About

The Clinical Prevention and Population Health Curriculum Framework is a product of the interprofessional APTR Healthy People Curriculum Task Force, established in 2002 by the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR).  The Framework provides a common core of knowledge for clinical health professions about individual and population‐oriented prevention and health promotion efforts.  Health professions educators are encouraged to review their curricula and curricular requirements to ensure they include elements of the Framework[1]. 

Framework Structure

The Framework provides:
  • Content outline that is compatible with a range of learning outcomes or competencies as determined by each health profession, 
  • Structure for organizing and monitoring curriculum,
  • Structure for communicating within and among the health professions.[2]
​The Curriculum Framework does not provide detailed information about how to teach clinical prevention and population health.  The examples included in the Appendices are models of how the Framework content has been integrated in profession-specific curricula. 

4th Framework Revision

The Framework undergoes revision every 5 years. The fourth revision of the Framework features a greater emphasis on social determinants of health (SDOH) and health equity.  A new domain addressing mental and behavioral health was added and illustrative examples were updated.

14 New or Revised Topic Areas: 
  • 1.5.B. Impact of biological factors on health 
  • 1.5.C. Impact of discrimination, sexism and racism on equity and inclusion in health care and on health

  • 1.6.A. Data analytics 
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  • 2.1.D. Approaches to behavior change incorporating diverse patient perspectives 
  • 2.1.F. Identification of vulnerable and at-risk patients and populations, especially those in need of particular clinical preventive services and health promotion
        
  • 2.3.A. Access to mental, behavioral, and addiction health services 
  • 2.3.B. Risk reduction 
  • 2.3.C. Screening and detection of mental and behavioral health problems 
  • 2.3.D. Clinician wellbeing 

  • 2.5.B. Considerations for use of preventive medication 
  • 2.5.C. Adverse drug events 

  • 3.1.F. Systems thinking in population health 
  • 3.2.B. Principles to successful partnering 
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  • 4.1.E. Impact of health systems organization on health outcomes 

Curriculum Recommendations

Although the Framework was primarily designed to provide guidelines for education in the clinical health professions represented on the Healthy People Curriculum Task Force, the Framework is applicable to many other health professions disciplines. The Task Force thus recommends that all health professions education programs:
  • Incorporate clinical prevention and population health educational content in their curricula.
  • Evaluate students’ knowledge and skills with regard to clinical prevention and population health.
  • Systematically determine whether appropriate domains and topic areas in the Curriculum Framework are part of its standardized examinations for licensure and certification as well as program accreditation.
  • Use diverse teaching and learning methods to incorporate clinical prevention and population health content into degree and continuing education programs, including service‐learning, problem/case‐based learning, and simulation methods.
  • Integrate innovative, interprofessional educational experiences and approaches focused on clinical prevention and population health.

Rationale

The Task Force members believe that if the United States is to achieve Healthy People objectives, all health professionals must incorporate population health principles and activities into their education and professional practices. The Task Force recognizes the value of using an interprofessional education approach for teaching and learning clinical prevention and population health, as well as for developing models for students' future clinical practice. 

Population health has been defined as “the health outcomes of a group of individuals including the distribution of such outcomes within the group.”[3] More recently, population health has been described as “measuring and optimizing the health of groups and in so doing embraces the full range of determinants of health, including health care delivery.”[4] 

Improving the nation’s health requires health professionals to understand and apply prevention and population health principles, practice in interprofessional teams, and link with other programs and services that affect health.  Interprofessional team-based care—care delivered by intentionally created work groups who share the responsibility for a group of patients[5]‑-is facilitated by the development of the relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes early in the process of health professions education.  

A more effective, sustainable healthcare system includes a workforce that: 
  • understands and  integrates population health principles and implications for individual patients, clinical practices, and the community;
  • is committed to working in interprofessional teams to promote health, as well as prevent disease and injury;
  • contributes to the public health systems in which they practice; and
  • is dedicated to improving health outcomes and reducing health disparities across the population being served.

Healthy People Curriculum Task Force Members

The mission of the Task Force is  to achieve Healthy People objectives of increasing health promotion, disease prevention, population health and interprofessional learning experiences for students in health professions education programs. The members of the Task Force routinely collect data to support Healthy People educational objectives (ECBP Objectives 12-19 in Healthy People 2020 and ECBP Objectives D08-D13 in Healthy People 2030)
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Convening Member
Members [see full roster]
Resource Organization
[1] Examples of national health professions education organizations that have used the Framework to promote curricular change are described in Appendix A.
[2] To facilitate communication, the Task Force recommends that all health professions use the term “Clinical Prevention and Population Health” when referring to this subject area in the curriculum.  
[3] Kindig D and Stoddard G.What is Population Health?  Am J Public Health. March 2003; 93(3): 380-3.
[4] Gourevitch Marc. Population Health and the Academic Medical Center: The Time Is Right. Academic  Medicine. April 2014; 89(4): 544-549.
[5] Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) 2011. http://ipecollaborative.org/uploads/IPEC-Core-Competencies.pdf